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Friday, 23 December 2011

Great Expectations....

I missed you my Dear blog..I'm sure you missed me too :) I've been a bit busy, a bit more lazy and a lot less inspired. Anyway, here's a little something before we all go on a break again..

Couple of days ago, I got a chance to see a preview of one of the most awaited Bollywood movies of the year - Don 2. Although I didn't love the earlier Farhan Akhtar - Shahrukh Khan outing - mostly because I felt the it was clunky. There were too many unnecessary throwbacks to the original Don and that simply looked out of place in today's context (especially the remixed songs - which were atrocious!). I did like some of the twists (in the old one) and the promos for the new one looked super slick and so I was quite excited to get a free pass to Don 2.

The movie takes off where the last one left. Don's many enemies are conspiring to kill him. Cut to Malaysia, where we meet SRK who is leaner, meaner and has a very bad hairdo (which he does get rid of soon though). A few seconds later, he has single-handedly taken care of about five men. Daniel Craig would have been proud.

Credits roll, backed by great sound track by Shanker-Ehsaan-Loy. I have a big smile on my face and my friends look at each other with a thumbs up sign.

After the customary introduction of the oh-I-am-too-cool-for-Bollywood Priyanka Chopra, Don is re-united with Boman Irani and we see a well-executed jail break. So far so good.

But then, the plot begins to look very much like it was in the 70s -we are explained every detail of the plot (twice: in English and Hindi). Don (who controls the drug cartel of Asia) suddenly wants to steal "printing plates for bank notes". Really? In this day and age of plastic money, e-money and m-money, our very intelligent Don wants to steal bank notes! And how will he steal, these printing plates you ask? But of course, we use Bollywood's mantra - when in doubt about how to break into a high security vault, please refer Ocean's 11. Sure enough, we are introduced to a computer hacker, a bomb expert etc etc..Farhan Akhtar, et tu??

You get the gist..of course, there's some customary melodrama thrown in for good measure. Farhan tries to bring some twists into the plot, some work some don't. Some of the dialogues made every one burst into laughter, not because they were witty, but because they were so out of place and ridiculous.

Overall, I thought the action sequences were very well shot. SRK as Don does an admirable job (yes yes, I have always been an SRK fan!). He beats up everyone, masterminds the whole plot, charms everyone including PC (who I'm sorry to say, has nothing really to do in this movie..why is she there anyway?). Don suddenly begins to look more like Ethan Hunt! (maybe that is why Mr. Cruise released MI4 earlier in India). But then makes me wonder where all his henchmen went? Whats a Don without his army of followers?

Boman Irani is good. The others are either bad or completely wasted in their roles.

Oh well, so much for expecting a rockstar movie!

Speaking of which, I was really looking forward to Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar. As a AR Rahman fan, I loved this out and out rock album. The promos looked convincing, with Ranbir looking like he knew how to act like a Rockstar.

First things first, Ranbir did indeed know how to act like a Rockstar. Every frame in the movie belonged to him. At every stage, he was pitch perfect in showing how a simple college going kid became "the bad boy of rock music". How he got fame and money, but he lost everything he had and became completely disintegrated from society...

The music of course, had a life of its own. On screen, it looked and sounded like magic. Rahman at his creative best!

What went wrong then? The plot, of course. The first half of the movie was good, but then the second half was so slow that you could feel the frustration in the air. Everyone was itching and really hoping that the movie would redeem itself and something would actually happen! The songs which were the movie's best assets began to feel like a burden when there were 3-4 songs in quick succession. The other problem was the lady who played Jordan's love interest. While Nargis' character was obviously "inspired" by Kareena's from Jab we Met, Nargis is no Kareena. Her eyes never light up and her voice (dubbed) actually sounds so screechy, that you don't want her to speak!

As someone rightly said, Ranbir is so good in the movie that he makes the rest of it look ok!

Oh well, so there we are, the end of another year. A year that started with great expectations, but fell a bit flat. The markets had started to look up and seemed like we were on the brink of economic recovery. Alas, the recovery was short-lived and soon we were back danger zone, just like 2008.

Personally, it has been a roller coaster ride for sure, but I wish things would move forward instead of moving around in circles...

Anyway, I hope that the next year brings better tidings for everyone.Here's wishing you a brilliant 2012!! Happy Holidays everyone :)

2 comments:

Your Don2 review is so on the spot! Printing notes? Really? I was thinking the same thing while watching the movie! What an imbecile and terribly weak idea! And yes a lot of the dialogues made me laugh. I think the only scene that I thought was genuinely funny was the one where Boman Irani gets a lecture on fake currency notes. Will read Rockstar review after I watch the movie.

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Eternally curious and seriously opinionated..In these pages you will find me questioning and opining on norms, issues, cultures, films, music, books, fashion and anything under the sun really! Looking forward to a constructive dialogue with you my dear readers and I hope you find this an interesting read!